The subject is a cast of the head of one of the five figures, The Burghers of Calais, sculpted about 1886 by August Rodin, who was born in Paris in 1840 and died in 1917.
Details
- Designer: Mardon Printers based on a portraits in the National Gallery
- Printer: Mardon Printers (Pvt.) Ltd., Salisbury, Rhodesia
- Process: Lithography
- Paper: Chromo with creamy/brown gum
- Watermark: None
- Perf:
- 14.5 x 14 (comb)
- 13.5 (line)
- Cylinders: 1A (Black) 1A (Yellow) 1A (Magenta) 1A (Cyan)
- Sheet: R6 x 10 (60 stamps)
- Quantity:
- 382,000 (comb)
- 18,000 (line)
Due to the large format of the stamps it was decided that the perforations would best be done by a line perforator, but it was found that correct registration was virtually impossible to achieve with this type of perforator.
A comb perforator was then hurriedly ordered and the stamps perforated accordingly. Because of the large amount of wastage that had occurred in the first attempts there was a shortage in the 9d. value, so the printers made up the shortfall by selecting a number of the best line perforated stamps which they included in the deliveries to the Post Office. They thought that the difference, not of great importance, would not be detected, and, had it not been for the observance of some philatelists, no one would have found out.
After the discovery, the matter was investigated and it was revealed that some 300 sheets of line perforated stamps had been distributed to various post offices. Most of those delivered to the Philatelic Bureau were used for making up First Day Covers, but once the discovery had been reported in the press, there was a rush to acquire these varieties, as some people believed that they would, in time, become valuable stamps.
Cylinder Numbers
Sheet Numbers
